mySMU

Registration Instructions - Summer/Fall 2017

All upper-class JD students and continuing LLM students will register for May 2017, Summer 2017 and Fall 2017 courses via my.SMU. Please read all instructions and make sure to check the Fall 2017 exam schedule under "Exam Information and Policies" on the Registrar's website before registering for your fall classes. Exams cannot be re-scheduled due to time conflicts. Scroll down for further instructions.

Financial Aid/Scholarships

SUMMER TERM Financial Aid: In order to qualify for Financial Aid during the Summer 2017 term, Law students must enroll in a minimum of 3 credit hours. Failure to enroll in the 3 hour minimum will result in the cancellation of your summer term aid. This will not impact your aid for the regular fall or spring terms.

If you are or will be receiving a scholarship during the fall semester, you must remain in good academic standing (the cumulative GPA that you must keep depends on the particular scholarship type) and be registered as a full-time student based on your program in order to keep the full amount of the scholarship. (12 hours for day students, 9 hours for evening students). If you register for less than full-time, your scholarship will be pro-rated based on how many hours you are registered for. Proation is based on the average full-time hours for the program (15 for day students and 10 for evening students). If you fall below the cumulative GPA needed to keep your scholarship, the scholarship will be canceled. The scholarship may be re-instated if your GPA rises once again in a future semester.

*Please note that until the end of the add/drop period for changing class registration (which normally occurs during the second week of school) we do not know if a student will be registered for less than full time hours in their program. Therefore, we cannot do the proration of scholarships until after this time. This means that a full scholarship will normally be awarded in your financial aid award and that this number will subsequently be adjusted if by the end of add/drop you are not enrolled in full-time hours for your program. This will result in a reduction in your financial aid which can create a balance due to the university when scholarship monies are reversed.

Scholarships do not apply to the summer semester. All scholarships are awarded and applied to the fall and/or spring semesters only. Also, scholarships are not applied towards tuition for classes taken at other schools. If you will be visiting another school, your scholarship will be canceled for that particular semester. Receipt of scholarship funds cannot be accelerated. If you graduate earlier than the normal matriculation for your program, you will only be awarded scholarship funds for the semesters you are enrolled in the law school on the basis of the scholarship award per semester.

Clinic Registration (JD Students)

(For students who were selected for clinic through the lottery)
Clinic seats will be assigned through a lottery that will occur prior to registration. Students who receive a clinic seat in the lottery are required to register for that clinic through my.SMU during registration for the fall and summer. Do not register for a clinic unless you were selected for it through the lottery. Students who register for a clinic they were not chosen for will be dropped from that clinic. Any clinic openings that occur after registration will be filled on the basis of the waiting list. The clinic will contact any students who have made a clinic spot and were on the waiting list.

Non-class Credits (JD Students)

In order to take extra hours students must fill out a petition for extra hours and obtain approval from Dean Yeager. Evening students may petition for full-time status after their second semester. The petition may be found on the Registrar's web page under "Forms" or in the Registrar's office.

The maximum number of credit hours day students may register for is 17. Day students may not petition for additional hours. The maximum number of credit hours that evening students may register for is 11 without petitioning for extra hours. If approval is given, evening students may register for up to 17 hours.

Directed Research, Externship, Moot Court, and Mock Trial hours must still be added through the Registrar's Office. To register for any of these hours, permission must be obtained from the designated faculty member and the appropriate permission to register form must be submitted to the Registrar's Office. The permission to register form is available on the Registrar's web page under "Forms". Law Review and Clinic Deputy hours must also be added through the Registrar's Office, however no signed authorization is needed. You may fill out a form in the Registrar's Office for these hours to be added or send an e-mail to a member of the Registrar's Office including your ID number, the name of the law review or clinic (for clinic chief), and number of credit hours that need to be added.

Add/Drop Deadline (All Students)

ALL CREDIT HOURS that are to be applied to the summer or fall 2017 semester must be added to your schedule by the last day of the add/drop period. *This includes hours for Directed Research, Externship, Moot Court/Mock Trial, Clinic Deputy, and Law Review. Refer to the Academic calendar for add/drop deadlines. You will receive a grade of "W" on your trancript if a class is dropped after the add/drop period has ended, however you may drop a class up until the last day of classes with the instructor's permission. First year students may not drop first year required courses without the permission of the instructor and Dean Yeager.

Required Courses, Notes, & Reminders (JD Students)

Required Courses for Graduation: All first year courses (31 hrs.), Professional Responsibility (3 hrs.), Constitutional Law II (3 hrs.), General Writing course (GW) (2 or 3 hrs.), Edited Writing course (EW) (3 hrs.), Professional Skills course (PS) (1, 2, 3, or 4 hrs.) (for students who were admitted before fall 2016), Experiential Courses (EL) (for students who were admitted in fall 2016 or later). You may refer to Degree Requirements for a degree audit checklist and more information regarding degree requirements.

*Constitutional Law II will not be offered in the evening in the spring 2018 semester. It will only be offered during the day.

*If a class that you want to add to your schedule is full/closed when you try to add it, you can either go ahead and add another (open) class to your schedule or keep checking my.SMU periodically throughout the add/drop period to see if the class has opened up. Most courses have a seat limit based on the number of physical seats in the class. If the class is full, it is most likely because there are no remaining seats in the class.

*Courses MUST be designated as either Edited or General Writing to satisfy the writing requirement. They are designated as "EW" or "GW" on the upperclass course listing next to the title of the course. Keep in mind that if a class is listed as a (GW) (PS), for example, you can only get credit for one of them.

*6 Residency credits are required for graduation. (1 credit is given for passing 12 course hours in a semester; 3/4 credit for 9-11 hours; 1/2 credit for 6-8 hours; and 1/4 credit for 3-5 hours) Refer to the law school catalog for more information.

*Maximum number of pass fail hours (JD Students)

The maximum number of pass fail hours (other than for externships) which can be applied to satisfy the 87 hours required for graduation is 6. This restriction also does not include hours transferred from other law schools or another graduate school at SMU. Generally, the type of pass fail hours that this affects are hours for law review, mock trial and moot court competitions, and serving on the BOA. **There are no in class lecture courses that JD's can elect to take pass/fail.

Prior to registration, follow these steps (All Students)

Check for any service indicators (holds) which need to be cleared prior to your enrollment. To view your holds:

Under Student Self Service, click the Student Center link (on right hand side of screen).

Click the Details link under Holds (on right hand side of screen).

If you have any holds on your account, they will appear. If not, it will say "No holds."

Contact the appropriate person or department listed with each hold to inquire about the hold and have it cleared. If no contact person or department is listed, contact the University Registrar's Office in the Laura Lee Blanton Building at 214-768-2038 or registrar@mail.smu.edu. If you have a hold on your account when your appointment time opens, you will lose registration priority. Please be advised that it could take up to 24 hours to have any hold removed.

Review the course schedule and choose your classes. The summer and fall 2017 course listings and block schedules are on the Law School Registrar's webpage under the Course Schedules and Information link.

Make sure to review the exam schedule for the applicable semester prior to registering for classes. Do not register for courses in which the exams are scheduled at the same time. The exam schedules are also on the Law School Registrar's webpageunder the Exam Information and Policies link.

Check for seat availabilities for the courses that you have chosen by following these instructions: Seat availabilites are automatically updated in MY.SMU as students add and drop courses.

Under Student Self Service, click the Student Center link (on right hand side of screen).

Click the Search for Classes button.

Select the Term (May 2017, Summer 2017 or Fall 2017) from the drop down menu.

Select the Subject (Law).

Select the Course Career (Law).

Uncheck the Show Open Classes Only box.

Click search.

Click OK when the statement regarding 50 classes appears. If you see a green circle next to Status, the class is open. If you see a blue square next to Status, the class is closed. The law school does not use the wait list function. Under "Available Seats" you will see Unrstr and Rstr. Unrstr is the unrestricted number of seats that are available in the course.

The schedule for on-line registration for upper-class students is as follows:

All continuing LLM students. JD students who have 53 hours and above including hours in progress.

Monday, April 17th beginning at 12:30pm

LLMs register for up to 14 credit hours.
Full-time day and evening students register for up to 17 credit hours. Part-time evening students register for up to 11 hours.

JD students who have 32-52 hours including hours in progress.

Tuesday, April 18th beginning at 12:30pm

Full-time day and evening students register for up to 17 credit hours. Part-time evening students register for up to 11 hours.

JD students who have 0-31 hours including hours in progress.

Wednesday, April 19th beginning at 12:30pm

Full-time day students register for up to 17 credit hours.

Except for clinics, no waiting lists will be maintained. All open seats will be available on a first-come-first-served basis during the regular add/drop period. Please check for all current seat availabilities through MY.SMU.